The Heartbreak Kid, screenplay by Neil Simon,
based on story by Bruce Jay Friedman
Eight out
of 10
Alas, the
genius who wrote the amusing screenplay for this comedy has just died, the
other day –
May he rest
in peace!
The Heartbreak
Kid has been adapted for the big screen more recently, a version that is not as
good as the one looked at here, opened in 1972, with Ben Stiller in the title
role and reviewed here:
The Neil Simon
version has been nominated for two academy Awards, for Best Actor in a Supporting
Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, the latter was nominated for a
Golden Globe
Neil Simon
was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and Charles Grodin for
Best Actor in a Motion Picture.
Charles Grodin
is marvelous in the role of Lenny Cantrow, who marries Lila Kolodny aka Jeannie
Berlin nominated for the Oscar and the Golden Globe for her performance.
The newlyweds
travel to Miami on their honeymoon, where the hero may experience what Marcel
Proust has described in his monumental:
In Search
of Lost Time also known as Remembrance of Things Past and in the original A La
Recherche du Temps Perdu
The genius
Proust says that once we get something that we desired, we tend to stop
desiring it, or in the case of a woman we long for, when she accepts our
advances and is seduced, we stop desiring her.
In psychology,
this phenomenon is called
Hedonic Adaptation
In connection
with what happens to the protagonist of the motion picture, there is another
circumstance, albeit it tends to happen after two years in a relationship,
mostly in marriage:
The Honeymoon Effect that can be placed next to
The Coolidge Effect
After two years,
partners might get interested in experimenting, having sex with others who have
the advantage of being…new, unexplored temptations…
Of course,
this is something that has effect only on some people, perhaps the more vulnerable,
weak, without strong feelings and probably out of love – it has been
established that philandering is not the cause of the breaking of a relationship;
it is actually the effect of the couple drifting apart and the symptom of a
love that has ended.
However, in
the case of The Heartbreak Kid, it takes only three days to realize that he
does not love Lila, but is instead infatuated, thunderstruck by Kelly Corcoran
aka Cybill Shepherd.
The latter
comes breezily on the beach, where Lenny rests and tells him that he is sitting
on her spot and later, when Lila is foolish enough to stay in the sun for too
long and hence has burns on her body and needs to stay in bed, Kelly meets
Lenny at the bar, where he is on her stool…obviously.
She takes
him swimming and he confesses that he is a newlywed on his money moon – which in
the more recent version does not happen and is used as a pretext for some comical
– maybe – complications.
The hero is
jubilant, exhilarated, delighted, and exultant and tells this intriguing,
provocative, brave, challenging, strange woman that she fascinates him and he
would need to inform his wife that it is over.
Cybill is in
Miami with her serious, rather pugnacious, protective, suspicious father, Mr.
Corcoran aka Eddie Albert – nominated for the Oscar for this role – and her
mother, who is more amenable, friendly and supportive.
When The
Heartbreak kid mentions his marital situation, his intention to settle in Minnesota
and - hilariously – that he is the most serious young man that the parent had
ever seen – considering he had just mentioned he had been married for only three
days – Mr. Corcoran has very clear, hostile, determined, belligerent stance and
underlines that he never wants to see this loathsome creature ever again!
The scene
at the restaurant, where the protagonist takes his wife to inform her that he
wants to be free is both mirthful and somewhat awkward, as you can imagine, the
man tries to induce the importance of having bad experiences with the good,
sounding like Harvard Professor Tal-Ben Sharar with his motto Learn to Fail or
Fail to Learn…
The New
York Times has included this very good comedy on its list of Best 1,000 Movies
Ever Made:
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